The invention set forth in this specification is primarily directed to improvements which are primarily intended to be utilized in combination in ribbon inking machines.
For many years it has been customary to throw out and replace inked ribbons as are commonly utilized in connection with various types of computing, calculating, addressing and related machines after the ink within such ribbons has been consumed or exhausted as the result of prolonged use of such ribbons. To a large extent it is considered that economy can be achieved by re-inking such ribbons after they have been used.
Preferably such ribbons have been re-inked utilizing a method in which ink is applied to such ribbons and in which such ribbons are then heated to a moderate extent sufficient to lower the viscosity of the ink applied so as to tend to cause such ink to permeate such ribbons and to a sufficient extent so that any thermoplastic material within such ribbons which has been stretched from an initial shape as a result of prolonged use tends to assume its initial configuration. In order to achieve the last result it has been considered necessary to hold a ribbon under tension as it is heated.
Unquestionably prior machines for re-inking ribbons as indicated in the preceding have been highly utilitarian and serviceable. Unfortunately, however, these machines have tended to be somewhat limited in their utilization because of several different factors. One of these is that such machines have normally been constructed so that the speed at which a ribbon passes over a heating structure will vary depending upon the diameter of a roll of ribbon being inked. This is considered disadvantageous since it results in a portion of a ribbon which is being re-inked being subjected to either a greater or lesser amount of heat than other portions of the same ribbon. This will cause unequal permeation of the ink applied to such a ribbon into the interstices of a ribbon. It will also tend to result in uneven shrinking of a stretched ribbon along the length of a ribbon back to or towards its initial configuration. Such prior machines have also been somewhat limited in their suitability for use with ribbons of various different thicknesses.